Latter Day Saint polygamy in the late-19th century

After the death of church founder Joseph Smith, the doctrine was officially announced in Utah Territory in 1852 by Mormon leader Brigham Young.

In the years after members of the LDS Church began practicing polygamy, it drew intense scrutiny and criticism from the United States government.

This criticism led to the Utah Mormon War, and eventually the abandonment of the practice pursuant to the 1890 Manifesto[1] issued by Wilford Woodruff.

[3] To this, Emma Smith replied that she had never seen such a document, and concerning the story that she had destroyed the original: "It is false in all its parts, made out of whole cloth, without any foundation in truth.

During the presidential election of 1856 a key plank of the newly formed Republican Party's platform was a pledge "to prohibit in the territories those twin relics of barbarism, polygamy and slavery".

[5] The authorship of this phrase has generally been attribuated to John A. Willis[6] Further tension grew due to the relationship between "Gentile" federal appointees and the Utah territorial leadership.

In the midst of the American Civil War, Republican majorities in Congress were able to pass legislation meant to curb the Mormon practice of polygamy.

These included the Wade, Cragin, and Cullom bills which had their origin in the territory of Utah and were initiated by men who were bitterly opposed to the Mormon establishment.

253) of 1874 was passed which sought to facilitate prosecutions under the Morrill Anti-Bigamy Act by eliminating the control members of the LDS Church exerted over the justice system of Utah Territory.

By removing Latter-day Saints from positions of authority in the Utah justice system, the Act was intended to allow for successful prosecutions of Mormon polygamists.

These efforts culminated in the sentencing of George Reynolds to two years hard labor in prison and a fine of five hundred dollars for his practice of polygamy.

[9] In February 1882, George Q. Cannon, a prominent leader in the church, was denied a non-voting seat in the House of Representatives due to his multiple marriages.

Judge Charles S. Zane, the Republican appointee of Chester A. Arthur, handed down harsh sentences to church leaders, beginning with apostle Rudger Clawson.

[16] LDS historian Todd Compton, in his book In Sacred Loneliness, described many instances where some wives in polygamous marriages were unhappy with polygamy.

In his "Sinners and Saints", he notes "I had expected to see men with long whips, sitting on fences, swearing at their gangs of wives at work in the fields.

While continuing to disagree with the practice of polygamy, he found that Utah-born girls, the offspring of plural wives, have figures that would make Paris envious; and they carry themselves with almost oriental dignity.

[31] The New York Times reported in 1860 that apostle Heber C. Kimball stated (in an address to departing missionaries): Brethren, I want you to understand that it is not to be as it has been heretofore.

[32]Mormon scholars dispute the accuracy of the quote,[citation needed] as it cannot be corroborated by a second source such as the extensive (though incomplete) record of sermons in the Journal of Discourses.

I wish more of our young men would take to themselves wives of the daughters of Zion and not wait for us old men to take them all; go-ahead upon the right principle young gentlemen and God bless you forever and ever and make you fruitful, that we may fill the mountains and then the earth with righteous inhabitants.Mormon apologists dispute that there was a shortage of women, and advocate that polygamy was used at least in part to care for women who did not have husbands or were widows.

[35] LDS historians George L. Mitton and Rhett S. James of FARMS cite Brigham Young[36] as encouraging single men to marry, stating that the incidence of polygamy would thus be reduced.

[37] The precise number who participated in plural marriage is not known, but studies indicate a maximum of 20–25 percent of adults in the church were members of polygamist households.

[17] In 1876, English-born and Utah-immigrant LDS Church member John Horne Miles was called on a proselyting mission back to England.

By the time he left for his church mission, he was engaged to Emily and Julia Spencer, the young daughters of the widow he and his brothers boarded with in Utah.

[48] Former LDS Church member and prominent critic Fanny Stenhouse wrote in 1875: It would be quite impossible, with any regard to propriety, to relate all the horrible results of this disgraceful system .... Marriages have been contracted between the nearest of relatives; and old men tottering on the brink of the grave have been united to little girls scarcely in their teens; while unnatural alliances of every description, which in any other community would be regarded with disgust and abhorrence, are here entered into in the name of God.

[49]In April 1889, Wilford Woodruff, president of the church, began privately refusing the permission that was required to contract new plural marriages.

"[51] Because it had been Mormon practice for over 25 years to either evade or ignore anti-polygamy laws, Woodruff's statement was a signal that a change in church policy was developing.

[52] By September 1890, federal officials were preparing to seize the church's four temples and the U.S. Congress had debated whether to extend the 1882 Edmunds Act so that all Mormons would be disenfranchised, not just those practicing plural marriage.

[citation needed] The Supreme Court had already ruled in Davis v. Beason[53] that a law in Idaho Territory which disenfranchised individuals who practiced or believed in plural marriage was constitutional.

[64][65] Rumors of post-Manifesto marriages surfaced and were examined in detail during a series of congressional hearings on whether the United States Senate should seat Mormon Apostle Reed Smoot, who was elected by the Utah legislature in 1903.

Polygamy was gradually discontinued after the 1904 manifesto as no new plural marriages were allowed and older polygamists eventually died, though, these polygamous LDS families cohabitated into the 1940s and 1950s.